Let Soleil shine! by Alice Holmberg

RECODE LE SOLEIL

RECODE LE SOLEIL STAGE 1: LET SOLEIL SHINE!

Organised by

In collaboration with

Design, facilitation and report by

Report date May 2013

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CONTENTS INTRODUCTION

GOAL

PARTNERS

EXPERIENCE

PROGRAMME

PARTICIPANTS

EXERCISES

RESULTS

THE INTERNATIONAL QUARTER

OVERLAPPING PLACES

BEAM OUT AND INVITE IN

PRIDE AND CREATIVITY

CONCLUSION

ASSESSMENT

CONCLUSION

LOOKING FORWARD

STRATEGY & ROADMAP

CONTACT

INTRODUCTION Let Soleil Shine! was a one-day CLEAR VILLAGE Lab in Saint-Étienne on 15 March 2013. The Lab was a part of the “EmpathiCITY, Making our City Together” Symposium, curated by Josyane Franc and Laetitia Wolff. Hosted by the Cité du Design, EmpathiCITY gathered representatives from the 11 UNESCO Creative Cities of Design: Buenos Aires, Berlin, Montréal, Nagoya, Kobe, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Seoul, Graz, Beijing and of course Saint-Étienne, for a symposium and an exhibition integrated to the Biennale Internationale Design Saint-Étienne 2013. At the end of the EmpathiCITY Symposium, the UNESCO Creative Cities of Design signed a declaration on making creative and more human cities. This sets out a clear vision on the role of design and designers, which was enthusiastically received by many of the designers present: ‘To encourage designers as mediators, to favour their work particularly in underprivileged neighbourhoods.’

The declaration was signed by city officials from Buenos Aires, Montréal, Nagoya, Kobe, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Seoul, Graz, Beijing and Saint-Étienne on 14 March 2013*, and Let Soleil Shine! was walking the walk the very next day.

“MAKING A CREATIVE AND MORE HUMAN CITY, TOGETHER WE, PARTICIPANTS TO THE UNESCO CREATIVE CITIES OF DESIGN FORUM SAINT-ETIENNE 2013 “EMPATHICITY, MAKING OUR CITY TOGETHER” RECOGNISE THE TRANSFORMATIVE POWER OF DESIGN AS A TOOL FOR SOCIAL COHESION. TO MAKE A CREATIVE, MORE EMPATHIC CITY MEANS DRAWING THE CITY TOGETHER BY STRIVING TO BORROW ITS RESIDENTS’ PERSPECTIVES IN THEIR BROADEST ETHNIC, CULTURAL AND SOCIAL DIVERSITY. WE ENGAGE OURSELVES TO ENCOURAGE DESIGNER AS MEDIATORS, TO FAVOUR THEIR WORK PARTICULARLY IN UNDERPRIVILEGED NEIGHBOURHOODS WHILE EMPOWERING THE COMMUNITIES THROUGH A COLLABORATIVE, PARTICIPATIVE AND INTERDISCIPLINARY PROCESS IN ORDER TO NURTURE URBAN SOCIAL BONDS. WE HOPE THAT THE EMPATHICITY FORUM WILL CONTRIBUTE TO DEVELOPING A PLATFORM OF EXPERIMENTATION BETWEEN THE NETWORKED CITIES AND WILL REINFORCE OUR MUTUAL COOPERATION ON A REGULAR BASIS, IN ORDER TO SHARE TEACHINGS AND INNOVATIVE METHODS IN THE SOCIAL INNOVATION FIELD AND WILL MAKE OUR CITIES MORE SUSTAINABLE, WELCOMING AND CONNECTED.”

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GOAL

PARTNERS

CLEAR VILLAGE was invited to design a Lab at the EmpathiCITY Symposium that would allow the urban designers and architects gathered from all over the world to leave their mark on the city and do what they do best: use their creativity to develop innovative solutions for neighbourhoods.

The day was organised by the Saint-Etienne Cité du Design for the Symposium “EmpathiCITY, Making our City Together”, in collaboration with the UNESCO Creative Cities of Design, Saint-Etienne Design Manager and the Etablissement Public d'Aménagement Saint-Étienne (EPASE), who also hosted the event. Let Soleil Shine! was included in the programme of Biennale Internationale Design Saint-Etienne 2013, with the support of all its institutional partners, including Saint-Étienne Metropolitan Government, City of Saint-Etienne, Rhone-Alpes Region, Ministry of Culture and the Institut Français.

Saint-Étienne has undergone substantial development in the last decade, with particular focus being placed on infrastructural initiatives and improving inner-city areas. The city has been largely successful in its development goals and has managed to stop the downward spiral of industrial decline and create a dynamic new brand for itself. Saint-Étienne now has a school of design and fine arts, a creative quarter, an entrepreneurs’ hub, and improved residential areas and public spaces. However, in this landscape of change and regeneration, there is a neighbourhood in the north that has been largely overlooked: Le Soleil.

The one-day workshop Let Soleil Shine! was designed to connect designers with the reality of life in Le Soleil and to allow them to contribute their ideas and experience to leave a mark on the neighbourhood.

INTRO RECODE

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EXPERIENCE Let Soleil Shine! took place on 15 March 2013, from 9.00am to 4.30pm in the premises of EPASE. The event was designed to build a balance between creative free flow and structured components like exercises, site visit and roundtables.

PROGRAMME 9.00

Welcome & introduction

10.00 - 11.30 Site visit & souvenir gathering 11.30 - 12.00 Tell your story: Souvenir & site visit 12.00 - 13.00 Lunch 13.00 - 14.30 The Soul of Le Soleil 14.30 - 16.00 The Body of Le Soleil 16.00 - 17.00 Tell your story: Let Soleil Shine! group concepts

PARTICIPANTS The participants in Let Soleil Shine! were a diverse blend of urban realm practitioners, including representatives from the UNESCO Creative Cities of Design network, local urban designers and statutory stakeholders. The number of male and female participants was approximately the same. Roughly half the participants were Saint-Étienne residents, while the other half came from Tel Aviv, Buenos Aires, Shenzhen, Seoul, Shanghai, Los Angeles, Graz and Nagoya. 21% of the participants were local statutory stakeholders and 59% were EmpathiCITY delegates and speakers.

EXERCISES For the work sessions Let Soleil Shine! participants were divided into four working groups. Forming groups is an essential part of the experience design and aims to ensure that each group includes a wide variety of perspectives. Each of the four working groups consisted of a mix of global experts on urban design as well as local practitioners and statutory stakeholders. Setting the scene The introduction encouraged all participants to enter Le Soleil as true explorers with an open mind and was supported by a brief and a map of the neighbourhood. Site visit Le Soleil is within walking distance of the EPASE premises and the first session was a site visit. The participants spent two hours in Le Soleil getting to know the neighbourhood, each in their own way. Le Soleil walk of fame As well as immersing themselves in Le Soleil during the site visit, the participants were asked to strike up a conversation with at least one person and bring back a souvenir from the neighbourhood. The souvenirs were presented to the group and collectively made up the “Le Soleil walk of fame”. Work sessions The creative work sessions in the afternoon were staged as facilitated roundtable discussions. Each table was provided with sketching tools and a tabletop with prompts to support the discussions. The work sessions were facilitated by CLEAR VILLAGE and supported by Cité du Design and EPASE team members.

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RESULTS After spending most of the morning in Le Soleil, the participants returned to the Lab filled with enthusiasm and determination to tackle some of the challenges they had identified. When describing Le Soleil, many used ambivalent expressions like:

“THE VIBE IS POSITIVE, BUT IT DOESN’T LOOK NICE.” “THERE ARE MANY YOUNG PEOPLE IN LE SOLEIL AND THAT’S GREAT, BUT THEY DON’T SEEM TO HAVE MANY OPPORTUNITIES.” “THE OUTLOOK IS PRETTY BLEAK, BUT AS SOON AS YOU BEGIN TALKING TO THE RESIDENTS, THEY ARE FORTHCOMING AND I HAD SOME GREAT CONVERSATIONS.”

Despite the problems in Le Soleil, many participants were impressed by the warmth and friendliness of the local community. As one participant mentioned:

“I GAVE THEM SOME OF THE POSTCARDS FROM MY EXHIBITION AT THE BIENNALE AND THEY GAVE ME THESE T-SHIRTS; VERY GENEROUS PEOPLE!” Eager to develop ideas and plans that could help to unlock Le Soleil’s hidden potential, the participants got together in their working groups for the afternoon sessions. After an intense three hours of collaborative design, the groups presented their concepts for Let Soleil Shine!, which are described in the following pages.

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THE INTERNATIONAL QUARTER The International Quarter concept identifies Le Soleil’s cultural diversity as its greatest asset and provides a plan to manifest this more strongly in the public space. Under the motto “the sun shines for everybody!”, the initiative includes a range of ideas for the public realm and sets out seven steps to make the sun shine for everyone in the community: + Putting together a public calendar with all the holidays and celebrations of the different communities represented in Le Soleil. Each of these would be publicly celebrated at street festivals with food, decoration and entertainment. + Setting up non-religious meeting places for Le Soleil residents and establishing them as destinations for the entire city.

+ Turning the park into an ‘International Park’ with temporary and permanent decorations expressive of different cultures. The International Park would host a programme of activities such as live music, dance and sports again drawn from different cultures. + Livening up the public space with street furniture. This would be designed in a participatory process with residents and again aim to underline Le Soleil’s identity as a place of diversity. + Improving the built environment by renovating facades. This would be done in a partnership between the municipality, housing owners and tenants. + Overhauling shop fronts. Local graphic designers would be mobilised to enhance the visual identity of the high street in particular. The mantra would again be to emphasise cultural diversity. This could be done for instance by providing the ‘international name’ of shops first and the French translation afterwards. + In addition, residents with a particular skill would be encouraged to advertise this. The idea is based on the traditional tradesman signs of e.g. bakers and carpenters, which used to be so significant for the streetscape, but in this case it would be applied to a vast range of other skills. The goal would be to communicate skills that are locally available and incubate small businesses. Following on from these initiatives, Le Soleil would be rebranded as the international quarter of the city and the go-to destination for weekend entertainment and service provision for the whole of Saint-Étienne.

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OVERLAPPING PLACES The Overlapping Places concept also views diversity as a key local asset. The goal would be to offer activities that would encourage residents to self-organise into groups of interests or needs, rather than staying in age or ethnic groups. Overlapping Places proposes a number of successive initiatives:

+ Step one would be to identify public spaces in Le Soleil where the traditional age and ethnic fractions overlap. Such places could include the old factory, the park and natural gathering places like areas in front of schools, mosques and churches. + Step two would be to stage activities in these places and encourage residents of different ages and background to take part, thus strengthening the idea of ‘overlapping places’ through ‘overlapping activities’. The focus would be on intercultural activities like sports and arts and a programme could include: + A sports day where activities are organised in all ‘overlapping places’. To engage as many residents as possible, a wide variety of sports would be offered to reflect community interests, ranging from pétanque and billiards to football and basketball.

+ The same approach of offering ‘overlapping activities’ in ‘overlapping places’ could be applied to a film day, a music day, a food day, and so on. In this manner, new activities would be brought to the neighbourhood and residents would be able to mingle and connect across the traditional divides.

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BEAM OUT AND INVITE IN The Beam Out And Invite In concept combines an external and an internal vision for Le Soleil. The external vision is based on spatial observations, which indicate that the neighbourhood core is around the church. The church square is already something of a social focal point, where people visit the markets and naturally gather. Another key asset in Le Soleil is the mosque. Both the church spire and the mosque minaret are visible from much of Saint-Étienne. They are powerful landmarks, which mark out Le Soleil in the city and can help to boost local identity and pride. The plan would be to: + Light up existing landmarks with spotlights at night, to signal to the city that there is life in Le Soleil and encourage people to come and visit. + Support existing gathering places and support the forming of a new positive village identity.

The internal vision for Le Soleil would be to provide more opportunities for residents and possibly revive local pride of the area’s industrial past. This could be achieved by: + Creating a recycling and up-cycling facility in Le Soleil as a way for the neighbourhood to connect to contemporary industrial technology. The facility would use cutting-edge technology, solve the city’s waste problem and offer economic opportunities for local residents, suppliers and entrepreneurs. + Establishing the facility as a landmark to add to the current mix. The facility would have a compelling design and be set in attractive park surroundings, thus creating a new destination in the area. + Promoting Le Soleil to schools, industry and other audiences as a place to visit, which has taken a bold step into the future.

+ Promote the new village identity throughout Le Soleil and to Châteaucreux and other neighbouring areas to create new connections. + Increase the number of landmarks in the longer term.

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PRIDE AND CREATIVITY

These problems would be tackled by:

The Pride And Creativity concept is based on the view that Le Soleil has substantial potential which is currently disconnected from the rest of the city. The goal would be to collaborate with the many community associations in Le Soleil and the large resident base of young and elderly people to build a bridge to the centre of Saint-Étienne. The initiative would focus on three local challenges in particular: unemployment, disconnectedness and the bland urban landscape.

+ Doing an artistic intervention where children would create wall paintings along the paths to Châteucreux as a physical manifestation of opening up Le Soleil. + Offering space in empty buildings to artists and designers under the banner of "Creative City of Design". This would be a residence programme to attract creatives from elsewhere and accommodate those who come to Saint-Étienne for a short period, for instance for conferences or the International Design Biennale. + Strengthening the connection to the International Design Biennale to provide creatives in residence with an exhibition platform.

+ Building connections between creatives in residence and the local community. As part of their residency, creatives could for instance support local craftsmen in developing new products and identifying creative ways to market. In this manner, creatives in residence would support the local economy and help to build new skills and opportunities.

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CONCLUSION ASSESSMENT

Neighbourhood identity

Although the concepts of the four working groups were very different in many respects, they gravitated towards four common themes: creating meeting places, improving the aesthetics of the built environment, respecting the neighbourhood identity, and supporting the local economy.

Although the urban designers and architects at the Lab aimed to identify opportunities for change in Le Soleil, they also stressed the need to be respectful to the local community. There was strong agreement that the change process should be aligned with the neighbourhood identity and start by emphasising existing spaces, landmarks and activities. Other offerings, both for local residents and visitors, could then be added over time.

Meeting places Many of the proposed ideas aimed to improve the social fabric of Le Soleil, either by offering communal activities or by changing the public space. The principle behind the latter point is that the hardware of the city is connected to the soft fabric of community interaction. By opening up and creating attractive new spaces, meetings will be facilitated and new connections will be built: to prevent isolation, mitigate frictions and help to create long-term community cohesion. Aesthetic improvements It was strongly felt that the municipality should take leadership on improving the built environment. However, rather than doing so in a top-down manner, it would be advisable to involve local associations and creatives in a participatory process. Such an overhaul would not only improve the aesthetics of the urban landscape, but also send out a more general message that Le Soleil is being brightened up.

Local economy There was strong consensus on the idea that the change process in Le Soleil should aim to address unemployment and the depressed state of the local economy. All initiatives that are carried out, ranging from improving the built environment to creating new facilities, should be developed and implemented with the local community and strive wherever possible to create employment opportunities, build and promote local skills, and serve as a spark for the local economy.

CONCLU QUOTE RECODE SION

DESIGN FOR REGENERATION

LOOKING AHEAD

The Let Soleil Shine! Lab brought together global experts and local stakeholders to engage with the reality of one of Saint-Étienne’s most challenged neighbourhoods and develop solutions. As such, it was a powerful illustration of what the UNESCO Creative Cities of Design declaration means in practice: using the transformative power of design in underprivileged neighbourhoods through a collaborative, participative and interdisciplinary process.

The crucial question now is: what next? As the organiser of Let Soleil Shine!, we at CLEAR VILLAGE hope that the Lab will not turn out to have been a one-off event, but will serve as inspiration for Saint-Étienne to embrace the UNESCO Creative Cities of Design declaration and initiate a designdriven regeneration process in Le Soleil. This could incorporate the following key components:

The Lab provided an appetiser of the results that can be achieved when different stakeholders work together in a facilitated design process. International designers and architects, members of the neighbourhood regeneration teams, representatives from Cité du Design and local urban designers and creatives participated with equal enthusiasm and managed within a day to create a valuable initial body of work which can serve as a foundation for future efforts.

+ Conducting a comprehensive analysis of community well-being, values and assets as a foundation for the regeneration process. + Bringing together the municipality, community associations, local residents and other stakeholders to develop initiatives through participatory design. + Identifying ways to improve the brand of the area, build local pride and provide support to the unemployed, small businesses and the local economy. + Building bridges between Le Soleil, neighbouring areas and the city generally to ensure that Le Soleil is a fully integrated part of the city landscape.

CLEAR VILLAGE would be happy to support these steps in any way, both on a strategic level and on the ground in Le Soleil, to ensure that the neighbourhood becomes the sustainable, welcoming and connected place it could be.

CONCLU SION E D O CE R ETO UQ RECODE

COMMUNICATION

STRATEGY & ROADMAP

increased number of landmarks new neigbourhood identity deeper human relations interlink with other neighbourhoods

residents advertising skills creatives engaging with the community incubation of small businesses

clear go-to places for visitors

connection to International Design Biennale aspirational interaction between residents and visitors

ACTIVITIES

ATTRACTIVE NEIGHBOURHOOD IDENTITY

NEIGHBOURHOOD PRIDE

initiate community activities international games day international sports day establish meeting places international film day international food day artistic interventions

BUILT ENVIRONMENT

IGNITION public furniture aesthetic uplift light landmarks at night graphic streamlining of shop facades â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;International Parkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

cutting edge technological facilities

artist studios in empty buildings

determine opportunities

identify underutilised buildings partner with community associations

COMMUNITY

identify cultural community groups list community celebrations

ANALYSIS identify overlapping places select landmarks

LET SOLEIL SHINE!

2013

CONTACT

CLEAR VILLAGE ALICE HOLMBERG Programmes Director alice@clear-village.org THOMAS ERMACORA Creative & Strategy Director thomas@clear-village.org

ÂŠ clear-village.org 2013

Lime Wharf Vyner Street London E2 9DJ United Kingdom

CREATIVE REGENERATION SPECIALISTS